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PROBLEM: On January 5, 2011, Governor Chris Christie signed anti-bullying legislation into law meant to address harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) within our schools. This legislation, known as the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, stated all schools must adopt comprehensive anti-bullying policies, increase staff training, and adhere to strict deadlines for reporting episodes of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (Hu, 2011). This legislation has impacted the daily professional responsibilities of building level principals throughout the state by mandating strict investigative timelines and specific paperwork requirements for each HIB incident. The purpose of this study was to gain the perspective of building level principals who implemented HIB legislation in their buildings over the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years and how HIB legislation impacted their professional responsibilities. The research questions guiding this study include: What training and resources were provided by the district when implementing this legislation? How is HIB legislation implemented across buildings within the school district? What perceived impact does New Jersey’s HIB legislation have on the professional responsibilities of building level principals? METHOD: This mixed methods study was conducted in a large suburban school district with ten building level principals. These ten principals were selected using their school building characteristics including size, academic level (high school, middle school, or elementary), and the number of confirmed HIB cases reported during the 2011-2012 school year. The research questions were assessed through semi-structured interviews with the ten participants and analyzing weekly surveys submitted by the participating principals over a four month period. The semi-structured interviews and weekly surveys were then compared to determine the impact HIB legislation had on principals’ responsibilities within their buildings. FINDINGS: HIB legislation has had a direct impact on the professional responsibilities of building level principals. It is apparent that this legislation has syphoned the building principal’s time away from other necessary activities such as improving instruction, building management, district initiatives, and community relations. More specifically, HIB legislation has saddled building principals with excessive paperwork and forced them to reallocate time away from other necessary tasks including teacher observations, informal building walk-throughs, student supervision, and completing other district paperwork. This study also shows that implementing New Jersey’s HIB legislation has evolved from year 1 (2011-12) to year 2 (2012-13); however, the professional impact on the building level principals implementing this legislation has had a significant impact on their other professional responsibilities. SIGNIFICANCE: The professional impact of HIB legislation on building level principals mirrors other state and federal legislative mandates that have been imposed by our governing bodies, such as the Guns Free School Act (GSFA). More specifically, this study provides New Jersey school districts with a model to examine the impact of HIB legislation on the professional responsibilities of their building level administrators.

ETD_5068

Ed.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by James J. Tuohy

doi:10.7282/T3Z31WNG

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.